Christian Wolanin Autographed Custom Card

(team links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

Three days after clearing waivers, Christian Wolanin was traded to the Los Angeles Kings while Michael Amadio will make his way to the Ottawa Senators.

Waivers nowadays are a bit of a crapshoot, with the majoriy of players staying put, but more and more moves occur not when someone is grabbed on the wire - which seems to be more of a goaltending thing recently - but instead a player getting traded with another contract going back the other way, which serves two purposes: the first takes into consideration the 50-contract limit, whereby NHL teams cannot have more than 50 players signed to an NHL-accessible deal at once; the second makes acquiring the player a lower-risk proposition, because having already cleared waivers once, said player can be assigned directly to the taxi squad or AHL/ECHL affiliate without needing to pass through waivers again, and the current Collective Bargaining Agreement no longer includes the provision in which players called up from the minors had to clear waivers again. In Wolanin's case, he will report to the AHL's Ontario Reign until the Kings see fit to give him a shot at a roster spot. My guess is the team wants their own staff to evaluate where he's at in his development and if he looks solid after two to five games where he accumulates a point per game or something near that, he'll be called up for regular NHL duties.

He had fallen out of favour with Sens head coach D.J. Smith, and the team's depth on the left side currently starts with Thomas Chabot logging the most minutes and Mike Reilly eating another chunk; in terms of prospects, Erik Brannstrom has also been singled out by Smith as not having a complete enough game at the moment to warrant second-pairing minutes but was still ranked ahead of Womanin, and College prospect Jake Sanderson was probably also slotted ahead of him as early as next season.

At 26, Wolanin should be entering his prime, but injuries have derailed his development a bit, having only suited up in 12 professional games during the 2019-20 season. Here he is wearing the Sens' red (home, 2007-2020) uniform on a signed custom card by BG:

Ironically (considering his defensive short-comings), he is, of course, former Québec Nordiques shutdown defenseman Craig Wolanin's son. Like Paul Stastny, Christian was born in Québec and holds dual citizenship, but considers himself American.